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Gary, Steven, Ajay, Nicole, Randy, Mark, Rudy, Anikó, Becky
[photo by Michael]
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Ten brave hikers have decided on this warm Saturday to hike the
Agua Fria River and continuing on to the Richinbar mine.
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Becky and Anikó find stepping stones across the water.
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We started out at the Badger Springs exit off I-17 and
traveled down the riparian area to the Agua Fria. This is a nice easy
sandy stream bottom walk area that will get you to the river with ease.
This little walk is interesting in that you are passing sycamore and
cottonwoods trees, but higher up on the slope are cactuses. There were
a few flowers in bloom, but they were scattered. This does not appear
to be a good wildflower season.
We start the hike by Agua Fria by hopping over some rocks to the other
side. The river has some water running in it.
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What makes the pool of water red?
Logjam.
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No one fell in, so we continue on. Later we could see
where the water had been running higher to fill a pool.
We could not determine whether the red color was from
algae or minerals. These pools were scattered, with
some wet and some just a rust colored stain in the bottom.
Continuing on down, we have to hop on boulders to cross the river. Most
of the rocks are granite, but some are volcanic. The volcanic ones may
have fallen from the rim high above us. We come to a log jam, with some
of us going over it and some go around it. At the back of the jam is a
large tire with the rim still attached. The truck was not attached to
the rim, so it must have broken free upstream and washed here and
backed up the log jam.
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Little waterfall graces the canyon floor.
Love in bloom. Well, cactus, anyway.
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The Agua Fria River has carved a deep
canyon through central Arizona.
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A little farther down we come to a nice little waterfalls.
Well it is now time to leave
the river bottom and get to the ridge that leads up to the mine.
It is a little steeper than I thought it would be, but still passable.
Many cacti are in bloom going up to the ridge and on it.
We get to the ridgeline and look back to where we came from.
Some of us stop here for lunch and some of us continue to the mine.
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The mine is an easy walk once you get
to the ridge line. There is even a trail to follow.
In the picture of the old mine foundation you can see a bunch of springs
just to the left of the wall. We thought this was used to hold up
something heavy that could move due to motors, rocks, or other things.
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Inspector Michael at the mine building.
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The mine is just below the rim so you cannot see it from I-17. There is
plenty to see, with old bits and pieces if mine equipment scattered
abort. We take about an hour to look at all the different things from
the mine shaft, chimneys and old foundations.
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Here’s the actual mine shaft.
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We’ve got a steep down grade.
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It is now time to head back to the cars.
This is an easy walk, with a small rise
to the top of Black Mesa and then we follow the old road back.
Once we
get close to Badger Springs we have to walk carefully down a very steep
section, until we get to flat Badger Springs area.
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Richinbar production 1905-1948 was: |
Copper |
7,352 |
Tons |
Lead |
6,947 |
Tons |
Gold |
4,616 |
Troy oz |
Silver |
1,425 |
Troy oz |
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